Semiconductor devices are manufactured by depositing insulating, conductive, and semiconductive layers over a substrate or workpiece, and patterning the layers using photolithography to create integrated circuits. The layers deposited typically comprise thin films, which may be thermally grown or deposited from a vapor phase, for example. Thin films for use in very large scale integration (VLSI) and ultra-large scale integration (ULSI) fabrication must satisfy a large number of rigorous chemical, structural, and electrical requirements. Film composition and thickness must be strictly controlled to facilitate the etching of sub-micron features.
Rather complicated and expensive tools and systems are used to form thin films of a semiconductor wafer. The wafers may be handled by robots to avoid contamination by human interface, for example. The systems may be sealed, and may comprise many chambers that the wafers are moved in and out of for various processes. Leaks in a system can result in oxygen or water entering a chamber of the system, which can have detrimental effects to the thin film being formed, causing entire lots of wafers to be scrapped. Thus, what is needed in the art is a system and method of detecting chamber leakage in semiconductor device manufacturing systems.